Many portable computing devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and tablet computers comprise touch-sensitive displays with which users can enter information. For example, users can typically handwrite notes on the touch-sensitive displays of PDAs using a writing implement such as a pen or stylus.
Although this handwriting functionality is useful for jotting down quick notes, it is less useful for composing larger documents, such as letters, if the touch-sensitive display is relatively small. The touch-sensitive displays of most PDAs are only a few inches wide. Therefore, if the user wishes to handwrite a relatively large document, the user will only be able to write a few words on the display before having to move his or her writing implement down to the next “line” of the display.
The above-described handwriting method is disadvantageous for several reasons. First, this process is inconvenient for the user because the user must continually interrupt the user's writing to move down to the next line of the display. Therefore, entry of information is slow and the user's thought process may be frequently interrupted. This inconvenience is magnified in situations in which the user must manually scroll the display down to obtain more space on which to write. In addition, writing using this method causes the user to feel “cramped” by the physical constraints of the small display. Accordingly, it is unlikely that the user will use the computing device to compose full handwritten documents.
In addition to the difficulties associated with handwriting documents identified above, existing computing devices, such as PDAs, do not provide feedback to the user as to the formatting the document that the user is composing. For instance, if the document being composed is to be printed in hardcopy form, the user is not provided with an indication as to the arrangement of the handwriting on the page that will be printed. In other words, lacking is what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) feedback during the handwriting process.